Dissecting Data Entry Job Sites

If you’re looking online for telecommuting job opportunities, you’ve undoubtedly run across data entry job sites that offer a pre-packaged solution or a membership fee. Let’s face it, most of us can type and would love to be able to easily make money with the skill! However, IF you’re sticking to the tried and true rule of looking for legitimate telecommuting work… “Don’t Ever Pay a Fee to Work” you’re less likely to be taken in by these types of sites.

So – let’s take a closer look at what one site promises and then look at what you actually get if you give them your hard earned money…

The site I’ve chosen to disect today is MyDataJob.com. Go ahead and click on the link so you can follow along with the points I’m going to make. It’ll open up in a new browser window for you so just place each broswer window side by side and follow along…

We’re Hiring…
Notice up in the left hand corner they have yellow text that immediately catches your eye. It says, “We’re Hiring” which implies that you will be employeed by MyDataJob.com. Who owns MyDataJob.com? Well, a ACInc.biz you get a “Server Not Found” error message.

I could continue on with the fun (well, I find it fun) of following leads to determine just who’s depositing the money you pay for the data entry job, but I think you get the idea. It’s not too likely that AC Inc. or MyDataJob.com is going to be signing any checks made out to you. If you continue the research, you’ll find at least two other websites (including AC-Web-Hosting.com and work-at-home-parents.com) owned by the same guys.

But if they are hiring you’d expect to be receiving checks from someone there. Right?!

Well, let’s see if we can figure out exactly where your paychecks will be coming from. Here’s what the MyDataJob.com Frequently Asked Questions page says:

You will get paid once or twice a week depending on what you want. Checks will be disbursed on the 1st and the 15th of every month. You also have the option of being paid by direct payment, or some companies even pay with Paypal.

But I thought they were hiring. Are you getting the least bit suspicious of what’s being offered yet? Or did your eyes have trouble getting past the “you will get paid once or twice a week” part at the beginning?

Let’s continue by reviewing more of the warning signs that are found on the Frequently Asked Questions page:

Q: Can you just deduct the $49.95 from my earnings?

No, sorry, it wouldn’t be fair to the other members who pay for this program up front. We are giving you the results you need to make well over $30,000 a month, $49.95 is really all we ask.

It’s actually impossible for them to deduct the upfront fee from your paycheck because they’re not the ones who’ll be paying you. It would certainly be fair to all members if all members weren’t asked to pay the upfront fee. The “it wouldn’t be fair to other members” answer is perhaps geared to make you feel guilty for even asking. So they’ve gone from “we’re hiring” to “we are giving you the results you need” to make money.

Q: What are some of the jobs I will have to accomplish?

Once you signup for our website, and login to your members only account, we will show you exactly which companies you will work with the maximize the amount of money you can make. You will be typing specific ads for these companies and they will pay you when you do. We show you step by step exactly what to do.

Now we’re getting a piece of the real picture here. In return for your $50, they are going to SHOW you companies you can work with. The homepage gives you more information about what you’ll actually have to do:

You will be writing short 4-5 lines of text that you can earn

as much as

$200 for! You will also be writing a full list of words for each line of text that you write. …
Do you know how easy all of this is? All you do is signup for your accounts, and you can be filling out forms in less than 5 minutes, we have tested (it) everything for you so its cut and dry! Once you full out the forms with the data that we give to you you can watch your bank account grow like mine did. These companies are actually paying you part of their profits, thats why they can pay so high. You will be getting a check sent to your house every other week, or direct deposited into your bank account (I prefer this method.) Payments arrive on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

Ah-Ha. Given this description, it’s my guess that you’ll be typing ads (using affiliate links) into a google adwords account. But that’s just a guess.

Here’s the biggest clue this site offers you to BEWARE of signing up for easy data entry work:

Are there anymore fees I will have to pay as a member?
Once you become a member, MyDatajob.com will NEVER charge you again.
However, in any business venture there must be some sort of investment made. Whats great about our program, is that its very small. We’ll even provide you with a free $100 credit just to start.

Members have reported only investing about $10-40 a month makes them $300 – $1000+ a week.

I mean, to be completely honest $40 doesnt by much these days, I can’t drive to a nice restaraunt for $40, much less eat there. The amount of income you can create with this program is endless and infinite, there is no reason why anyone should worry about our initial investment, it will be covered in less than a day!

Now it’s a business venture. They’ve gone from “we’re hiring” to “we’ll show you which companies to work with” to a “business venture.” They are going to provide you with a free $100 credit just to start. Start what? I assume that it’s an adwords credit. The $100 credit isn’t free–you just paid them $49.95 to get it. I guess, if you know what you’re getting into, it might be worth the trade-off. Fifty bucks to see what they say vs. the 100 dollar credit to use on your google adwords account. But without telling you upfront, exactly what you are buying into and that it will cost you to place those ads in the Google sponsored links section, I think it’s awfully unfair to say that it’s a simple data entry position openning.

If you proceed to their payment page, you’ll notice that it’s a ClickBank page. You’re actually paying through ClickBank for this opportunity. Perhaps this entire site is an affiliate for the original program offered up on ClickBank? What a vicious cycle.

Other sites, like DataEntryCompany.com, also offer credits towards new Adwords accounts. Their payment page also leads to clickbank. Hmmmm.

At least DataEntryCompany.com is more upfront about what you’re getting into. The tell you that you’ll have to sign up for a Google Adwords account and that you will be charged $5 when doing so. They also inform you that Google will be charging you for every click that’s placed on your ad. The ppc (pay per click) fees depend on the going rate for any given keyword phrase chosen.

DataEntryCompany.com also requires you to sign up with a hosting company in their member area for $4.95 per month. And, your paychecks will come directly from ClickBank. Search on Google for data entry and similar sites pop up everywhere. DataEntryPro.com, Type-at-Home.com, DataEntryCompany.com, and so on and so on.

If the idea of joining ClickBank to find affiliate links to promote (and pocket your commission off any sales) and then promote them using Google Adwords all you really need to do is research. You can find all different kinds of folks offering up GoogleAdwords credits with a simple search for them on Google. Hosting packages often throw them in as a bonus when you sign up to host an account.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you can eventually find the information you want to find if you’re just tenacious enough. Search for clickbank and “google adwords” and you’ll have a multitude of information right at your fingertips. Pick and plunder through to learn what you can and decide if this idea sounds like a good way for you to make money.

But know going into it that there’s a bit more to this job than “data entry!”

There are legitimate work from home jobs out there but it’s a real trick to find them because so many people prey on the folks who are looking. Get-rich-quick rarely happens unless you’re the person selling the get-rich-quick scheme to everyone else interested in finding legitimate work at home opportunities.

That’s exactly why I started this blog. Because in my every day life people are always asking me how to find work. Even people I don’t know who find out that I work at home ask me. It’s just easier to send them to a blog than to repeat the same stuff over and over and over.

While I CAN tell you what worked for me I can’t tell you what will work for you. The postings here are meant to help you figure it all out and steer you away from spending your hard earned money on empty promises.

If you’d like to post a little something about yourself and what you’re looking for here maybe I (and/or others) can try to help point you in the right direction. Or, if you’d like, you may email me at editor telecommutingjournal.com and I’ll see what I can offer for direction.

The reason data entry jobs are so muddled with scams is because it’s a catch-all phrase that can describe virtually anything. Back before computers they would have been described as “typing jobs” I suppose.

As I explained above and try to convey in the postings and comment answers, finding a telecommuting position is more about determining what your strengths are and how to market those to the world at large than it is about finding the perfect company who’s willing to hire people to work from home with job title as vague as ‘data entry.’ Instead of being the name of a job, it should be ONE of the skills a job opening requires.

For example, if you are able to work on data entry – you must be able to type. There’s a job posting right now on Craig’s List Sacramento that is looking for someone to transcribe with a 24-hour turn around and they note that telecommuting is okay! Check out this job posting and look for other similar jobs that require typing skills.

This is another great article. You did well mentioning it in the comment you posted on my blog.
The problem with most people like you pointed out is that they do not want to take time to verify anything. They prefer being spoon fed. And that makes them easy target for scammers 😉